Portage Lake Fishing, Dealing with Drainage, and a North Country Trail Hike for Good Measure
Last Tuesday evening I would get out fishing with my friend Eero. It’s hard to believe that it took until July 1st to break away from everything else I have going on to get out there with him. We would be out in a sustained wind of 8 to 15 mph out of the west which had the benefit of knocking down the mosquitoes. It was so warm that I didn’t even need the sweatshirt I had brought along.
Little time had passed before the first explosion took place on the water as a large smallmouth bass clobbered the plug Eero was throwing. We assumed that had to be a lamprey eel scar on its side. Eero would return this one to the lake.
We would catch three “hammer-handle” northern pike that we also returned to the lake, including this one that I caught.
I would also hook a keeper sized northern, but Eero decided not to use the landing net and it got loose as he pulled it up by the line next to the boat.
We would each catch legal sized walleye with Eero getting the larger of the two.
You can see my GoPro video from this fishing adventure on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
I would get to bed by 1:00 a.m. which made for a short night’s sleep ahead of the next morning’s swim at MTU. A late start would limit my distance to 2,400 yards.
I would work on projects at home and then head over to the old ice rink on Hancock Street to weedwhack the area around the grooming garage and the leg of the Chassell Fitness Trail going up the hill toward Misslitz Field until I ran out of gas.
Julie would then prepare the walleye that Eero and I caught and then Eero would join us for an outstanding dinner.
Thursday morning, I would run four miles on the rail-trail at an 8:42/mile pace and then by 11:00 a.m. I would turn my attention to finishing the weedwhacking on the hill leading up to Misslitz Field as well as weedwhacking the leg of the Fitness Trail along the cemetery. The Chassell DPW staff delivered a trailer while I was weedwhacking which allowed me to turn my attention to loading it with deadfall from the drainage that accumulated during the recent rains. Fellow Chassell Planning Commission members Steve Spahn and Brian Waters would join me during the noon hour, and we would load up the trailer with wood that accumulated in the drainage basin.
We had been paying close attention to the weather forecast that was calling for in excess of an inch of rain on Saturday and we were very concerned that with the depth of the accumulated water in the basin that the grooming equipment would soon be flooded once again and water would be over Hancock Street.
I contacted Dan Palosaari to see if he knew the precise location of the bent culvert and we discussed the concern about the incoming rain. He had just been involved with digging out the silted-in culvert on Lakeshore Drive that had caused flooding there and indicated that he would come by to help out with his excavator.
Craig Austin from the Chassell Department of Public Works would also join us and help out with a pump that he ran off a generator.
Dan’s work would create greater space for the silt to settle into and the water flow through the culvert would more than double.
On Friday, July 4th, Julie and I would head down to the Canyon Falls Roadside Park with our friends Sue and Jennifer to put in a five-mile hike heading both eastward and westward along the Sturgeon River on the North Country Trail. You can see the highlights of the hike across two videos on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at these links:
https://youtube.com/shorts/OdtPvIIl_Ok?si=VWTcc5sTd_kRcNwL
Saturday morning, I would be back at the old ice rink to load up more of the deadfall that we had pulled from the water on Thursday.
The Chassell DPW staff would dump that load and then I started to chainsaw the pile we had accumulated closer to Hancock Street. Steve Spahn would then join me to help out. With the rain soon to move in, Steve got down into the water with a shovel and started working the end of the culvert.
Suddenly, there was a huge rush of water and, almost instantly, hundreds of gallons of water surged through the opening in the culvert, draining out the basin!
It didn’t happen a minute too soon as a steady rain started to fall and would fall throughout the rest of the day. Further flood damage had been averted!
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